The REAL Kryton GB round #3. Taking payments now.

the guage is a water level gauge. Tells you how much water is stored in the tank.

Ok, today I spent about 4 hours finishing putting together my anodizing and did a test barrel. I have to say this was a bit different than the test sheet I did as it's hard to do the water break test on a curved surface. (water break will tell me if the barrel is truly clean or not as the water will bead if it's dirty) Needless to say, I did one barrel to test out how well my theories were going to work on how to make electrical connection to the barrels without scarring the outside. My test worked well with one minor exception. Apparently I didn't get rid of every single bit of oil from my fingers as I've got a fingerprint on one side. I've got pics to show ya. I didn't leave this one in the dye for very long as I didn't want to waste the dye on a barrel that was only a test bed. Now that this test has been successful, I'll start on another to do a fade test, then another with a marble test.

for the long awaited pics.

Woww thats a sexy purple! i cant wait to see how mine will turn out

the purple is really nice. good luck.

very slick! good work :drool:

OK. I have been toiling away at trying some other colors and effects and learning as I go. I'm learning that the place the two parts screw together is a great place for acid, or other contaminants to hide and ruin the anodizing in that area. I'm trying to overcome this and I'm sure I'll get it figured out. In the meantime, it's affecting my test subjects. Luckily, I can strip the anodizing off these barrels and do them over again.

Here's a picture of the bath tonight.. don't stick your toe in this one.. it's not too hot, or too cold, it's ACIDIC!



Tonight I tried to do a blue black marble. I'm not sure what prevented this one from taking the colors and am in the process of chatting with some anodizing pro's to get their input on what went wrong with this particular one. Here is the pic before adding the second color



and here is after the second color





this has to be the most unique marble I've ever seen. It's not just 2 tone. It's multitone..


Not what I wanted to be sure!

I also tried a solid blue tonight. This one has made it clear to me the pock marks have to be thouroughly cleaned or it's doing the same thing as the place between the parts.



Much better on this one but there are a few flaws like the place where the pieces screw together and... the head!


All I can say with that one is WTF?!?1

next up is a Hotlight, that I'm anodizing for Viperx1101. I donno what went wrong with the head on this one, but I'm pretty sure it was cause it was too close to the surface of the water.



This one will be stripped and redone.


Back to learning.

good luck kenom. don't get frustrated. what are you using to prep the metal. i find that a 50/50 mix of muriatic acid and water cleans metal well. and for aluminum a higher percentage of water. too much acid will turn the aluminum black.

ps.. did you get my paypal for the purple test kryton and focus knob????

michael.

oh I won't get frustrated. This is actually quite fun. I'm learning as I go.. sure I've done a few test strips of aluminum, but those are easy to clean. A cyndrilical barrel is a lot harder to clean in all these crevices and whatnot. I'm using lacquer thinner to clean any mothers polish or any other contaminants off the barrel, then I have to use a professional degreaser that I purchased from Caswell plating specifically for the purpose of getting rid of all traces of ANYTHING. I can't use anything like an acid that will end up changing the surface I've worked so hard to achieve. these need to be so clean that water doesn't bead on them and with the thread issues on the heads, I'm trying not to remove the heads any more than I have to. Once there is no oils or anything to "grease" the threads, they are having a tendency to seize up on me and that if anything is getting frustrating. You can ask Mohrenberg, he's ended up fixing the threads on a few of these thus far and from what I understand it's not a short process. I'm seriously considering sending all of them to him to have him fix ALL of the barrels threads. I could anodize each of these parts independantly but the amount of time that would take to mask the threads so they don't get anodized is just too much work to even consider.

Needless to say, I will keep plugging away at this and will get it done. I don't have a whole lot of time available to me with my 2 jobs (one of which is a graveyard position) and all the appointments I have to be at for my kids, so I'm taking every spare moment I have to research, and anodize what I can. I spent a total of 8 hours tonight anodizing and only have the 4 hosts to show for it. I have commissioned from Jayrob a few tools to allow me to anodize the focus adapters with the barrels (this adds an additional $60 to the cost of anodizing) and I am refining my skillz in anodizing as I go.

I did indeed get your payment for the purple and I'll do the focus adapter as soon as I get teh tools from jay. (hopefully he will rush the making so I am not delayed too long )

After this long night, I'm just :tired: and will reconvene at another time.

Be assured as I progress and do each of these barrels, I will post updates so that folks can see their barrels.

looking good man great progress!:gj:

How long does this process take?

that is an excellent question. Besides preparation of the host (making sure it's clean it takes 2 hours to anodize 1 barrel, then 10 - 20 minutes in each dye then 20 minutes in the sealer. So all told your looking at close to 3 hours per barrel. I am doing multiples at a time but it doesn't matter as the dying takes a long time (especially the fade and marble.

hope that answers your question.

can you refer me to the community you use for more information about anodizing?

Those pictures look amazing...

I can't wait to make these into lasers!!!

And thanks for all the updating info again!!!

CrossOut said:

can you refer me to the community you use for more information about anodizing?

Click to expand...

This is a nice place. Caswell Inc. Metal Finishing Forums

They look awesome Kenom. BTW do you have an update on the shipping status for people that asked for unanodized lasers like me?

I am sorry, I've kinda dropped the ball on the delivery of the unanodized ones. I've been meaning to put together the packages and ship them off, I just keep forgetting. I will get on it A.S.A.P.

Ken is it possible to get mine with no logo